About Christian Reader

What this is

Christian Reader publishes the full text of public-domain Christian classics — works by the Puritans, the Reformers, and the Church Fathers — alongside modern English translations of those same works.

Every book is free to read on this website. The companion mobile app adds premium AI-narrated audiobooks, offline reading, and progress sync.

Why I built it

Many of the most important works of Christian thought are out of print or written in 17th-century English that a modern reader has to fight through sentence by sentence. I wanted to read them, but the friction was high enough that I rarely did.

Christian Reader is the tool I wanted: full text on the open web, modern English versions where the original is genuinely hard going, audiobooks for when reading isn't an option, and a clean reading experience that gets out of the way of the content.

Editorial standards

• Source provenance. Every book in the library starts from a public-domain source — a structured transcription of the historical text, often combined with a scanned facsimile of the original printing as a reference. The pipeline keeps a record of how each book was produced.
• Audit gate. No book appears on the site until I've marked it audit-approved. Books that fail the audit aren't published, regardless of how complete the source files are. The backlog of "in pipeline" books is much larger than what's live.
• Modern English versions. When I publish a modern English version alongside the original, both are clearly labeled. You can toggle between them on every chapter and download either as PDF or EPUB. The methodology is documented on the Translation Methodology page.
• Free forever for reading. The web library and the in-app reader are free. I don't paywall classic Christian literature.

Get in touch

Want to request a book? Spot an error? Have a question about a translation? Use the feedback form — I read every message.